Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/07192_Field_TCUM T757.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 946b | 16 lines

There was no observation of the fact that similar speed of
growth and precociousness have always been the norm in tribal
cultures and in nonliterate societies. England and America
fostered the institution of prolonged adolescence by the
negation of the tactile participation that is sex. In this, there
was no conscious strategy, but rather a general acceptance of
the consequences of prime stress on the printed word and
visual values as a means of organizing personal and social life.
This stress led to triumphs of industrial production and political
conformity that were their own sufficient warrant.

     Respectability, or the ability to sustain visual inspection
of one’s life, became dominant. No European country allowed
print such precedence. Visually, Europe has always been shoddy
in American eyes. American women, on the other hand, who
have never been equalled in any culture for visual turnout, have